World Series by Renault - Hungaroring 2013 Race Report

Thursday, September 19, 2013 - 13:45

Lotus gained hard-won points at Hungaroring

Despite hoping to build on the excellent performance from the Red Bull Ring, where Marco Sørensen won both races, the Hungarian weekend provided tricky weather conditions and the car set up become a major lottery for the Lotus WSR team.

Heavy rain fell at the Hungaroring before Saturday qualification, which became a fight against time, with four interruptions before being brought to an early end by the red flag. Marlon Stockinger performed excellently in qualification, clocking the seventh fastest time. Marco suffered in these conditions managing only 20th place on the grid. The double-winner from the Austrian round had good speed in the race, but points eluded him as he finished 12th, with Marlon right behind in 13th.

An improvement in the weather on Sunday, provided a qualification period in glorious Hungarian sunshine. Marco Sørensen proved that he was not phased by Saturday's disappointments, qualifying 4th on the grid, while Marlon Stockinger managed 14th place .

Both drivers profited from successful successful race strategies, especially Stockinger . Immediately after switching the red lights went out on the start line, the compressor failed in Marco's car and he fell to 10th place. Stockinger gained one position off the start line and moved up to thirteenth place. Marlon pulled into the pits at the very last moment in the pit-stops window, giving him space and clear track. Marlon then returned to the track ahead of Marco in 7th place. He held his position until the end of the race, which meant second place for him among the rookie drivers. Marco Sørensen had a long fight in the group with Carlos Huertas and William Buller, and finished in ninth.

Both Lotus cars from the Czech team scored ponits in Sunday's race at the Hungaroring.

Marco Sørensen: "The race just went completely wrong, its hard to believe that we can be this unlucky, having a compressor failure in the start of the race. This weekend is one to throw in the trash, we have to look forward to Paul Ricard and maintain focus. Technical failure is hard to prevent and i'm sure the team is doing whatever they can to prevent it "

Marlon Stockinger: "The whole weekend was kind of up and down. But in the second race we had a really great car. Although I messed up qualifying, race was good . We could only get better and it also happened . Again, we have chosen a good strategy , I stayed on track for a long time and we benefited from that. I enjoyed summer break, but it was just too long, I could not wait to race. For us, the drivers, is this kind of a pause too long, we want to race!"

The next Formula Renault 3.5 race will be held at the Circuit Paul Ricard, scheduled from 27th to 29th September.